The Ann Arbor Spotlight: The Toolbox Trio

Tyler Duncan: I'm from Ann Arbor; my partner Aaron Gold is from Prague. Both of us are jazz performance majors, and we were randomly placed together as roommates last year. During that time, we started toying with the idea of combining my musical roots on the Irish bagpipes with Aaron's expertise in percussion and electronic music. We dig a lot of the same kinds of music, for example: Aphex Twin, Radiohead, Kylie Minogue, Eric Truffaz, Steve Reich, Eiffel 65, Cinematic Orchestra, Cher, etc - With our vastly different backgrounds and current shared inspirations, we felt we could really come up with something original.

TMD: What can a person expect to see at Toolbox Trio live show?

TD: You are going to see all original compositions inspired by drum and bass, hip hop, techno and punk performed on Irish Bagpipes, drums and laptop. There are elements of improvisation, composition and latex body condoms intertwined through out. We have two invisible band members, and we sometimes cover ourselves in Vaseline and squirm through the audience, naked and tanned. Basically, it's a good time for everyone.

TMD: What does the future hold for you guys?

TD: We want to keep writing new tunes and start replacing invisible band members with talented guitarist Theo Katzmann and brilliant bassist Christian Carpenter. Following our performance in Prague last year, our goal is to add at least one country a year to our resume. We also hope to get a demo circulating so you all can rock it on your porches in your dorm rooms.

The Toolbox Trio is playing tonight from 8-9 p.m. at the Foggy Bottom Coffee House in Dexter.